SYDNEY: External affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday that targeting infrastructure and causing civilian deaths is not a cceptable in any part of the world and emphasised on the need for both sides in the Ukraine conflict to return to the path of diplomacy and dialogue as “this conflict is not helping anybody at all”.
Jaishankar made the remarks while responding to questions after his address at the Lowy Institute on the growing importance of India’s relationship with Australia and the interests that both countries share as members of the security-focused Quad.
“We think targeting infrastructure and causing civilian deaths is not a cceptable in any part of the world,” he said while responding to a question on Russia’s missile strikes targeting key cities across Ukraine on Monday. He said this conflict is hurting a large part of the world today because the daily lives of the people are impacted in a very, very damaging manner. “And these countries with whom we identify ourselves, most of these countries are actually feeling frustrated because they feel their problems are being neglected,” the minister said. His comments came a day after India voted to reject Russia’s demand for a secret ballot in the UN General Assembly on a draft resolution to condemn Moscow’s “illegal” annexation of four regions of Ukraine. India favoured a public vote on the text along with over 100 other nations.
India has not yet condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and maintained that the crisis must be resolved through diplomacy and dia logue.
Jaishankar made the remarks while responding to questions after his address at the Lowy Institute on the growing importance of India’s relationship with Australia and the interests that both countries share as members of the security-focused Quad.
“We think targeting infrastructure and causing civilian deaths is not a cceptable in any part of the world,” he said while responding to a question on Russia’s missile strikes targeting key cities across Ukraine on Monday. He said this conflict is hurting a large part of the world today because the daily lives of the people are impacted in a very, very damaging manner. “And these countries with whom we identify ourselves, most of these countries are actually feeling frustrated because they feel their problems are being neglected,” the minister said. His comments came a day after India voted to reject Russia’s demand for a secret ballot in the UN General Assembly on a draft resolution to condemn Moscow’s “illegal” annexation of four regions of Ukraine. India favoured a public vote on the text along with over 100 other nations.
India has not yet condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and maintained that the crisis must be resolved through diplomacy and dia logue.